After food is cooked, the cook often likes to remove the food from the pot and place the food in a different container. The food may be placed in a cooking container such as a pan to be transported to a different location such as a party or an outdoor event. Or the food may initially be cooked in a pan and placed in a central area for enjoyment. A common inexpensive pan often used is a roil pan. These pans may include a lid made of plastic or the lid may also be made of foil so that the lid wraps around the edges of the pan to cover the food inside the pan. These pans and lids come in various shapes and sizes ranging from circular, rectangular, or square, for example. The pans are ideal for cooking, transporting, freezing, reheating and serving food.
The lids typically remain on the pans until the food is ready to be served or enjoyed. However, once the lid is removed, its placement becomes a problem. When plastic lids are removed from the pan, there is usually a question as to where they should be stored so they can be reapplied to the pan after everyone's food has been removed. Plastic lids are too large and bulky to sit on the same table where the food is being served. Also, it appears unattractive on the dinner table and at parties and events. The plastic lids are removed from the pans and the food may be exposed for unnecessary time periods. To conserve heat, the lid should remain on the pan to keep the food at its proper temperature level. Also, for cleanliness purposes, the lids need to be applied immediately after someone removes food from the pan. This will help to prevent bugs and germs from entering the pan.
Plastic lids consume a lot of storage space when they are not in use on the pan. Some may replace the plastic lid with flimsy foil paper. Similarly, the foil lids are flimsy and like foil paper they lose their shape after they are removed from the pan. Users often try to shape the foil back to its original shape and size but this is time consuming and often impossible and unattractive. Additional foil is wasted and used to cover the pans. Each time a person removes food from the pan, additional foil is used to cover the food because the person would have altered the shape of the foil.